Increasing individual's physical activity in our country is a primary health
promotion and disease prevention concern. Yet, much of the population remains
sedentary and thus, at increased risk for several diseases such as hypertension, coronary
heart disease and hyperlipidemia. Unfortunately, programs promoting physical activity
have had limited success in increasing activity and even less success in maintaining a
program over time.

The "Exercise for Everyone" program was designed to assess the effectiveness of
behavior change strategies developed for maintenance on physical activity using
individuals recruited through a community setting. Any type of moderate physical
activity (e.g., vacuuming, gardening, walking, swimming etc.) was considered
appropriate and encouraged. The researcher used the following behavior change
strategies: telephone prompting, and self-control strategies: self-monitoring, participant
set goals, self-reinforcement, self feedback and problem-solving strategies. In this study,
frequency of contact was varied from no contact, to once per every week, to once per
every third week over 16 weeks and faded in the last four weeks. All participants were
asked to self-monitor their physical activity, and all participants received either an
information only class or a self-control strategies class. Survival analysis using five
months of data points and using the criteria of first week of activity missed equaled "death" indicated an effect of greater adherence for individuals participating in a
strategies class versus an infOlmation only class (46% vs. 14%), but not for the effect of
frequency of contact (no contact, 33%; low contact, 31 %; high contact, 30% ) over all 18
weeks of the program. The results suggest the efficacy of a low cost class promoting
self-control strategies for behavior change for adherence to an activity program and
potentially for other health related behaviors.